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Saturday, December 15, 2012

This week in birds - #48

A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment:

Photo by Benjamin Skolnik courtesy of American Bird Conservancy.

The common name of this beautiful woodpecker is...Beautiful Woodpecker! Its scientific name is Melanerpes pulcher. I think I prefer the common name. The bird lives in the tropical and subtropical forests of the northern Andes in Colombia. Its population is believed to be stable at this time. It was chosen as this week's Bird of the Week by the American Bird Conservancy.

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The 113th Christmas Bird Count is underway. It started on December 14 and will run through January 5. It is an important citizen science project which helps to determine the whereabouts and the health of specific bird populations at this time of year. If you would like to get involved, it's very easy. Just go to the Audubon website and find a count that is taking place in your area and sign up for it. You will be most welcome.

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The "Fab Five" Whooping Cranes that recently made their way from Wisconsin to Florida have now been released from their holding pen to begin to acclimate to life in the wild. It is a "soft release" in that their keepers still use recorded crane calls to guide them back to the fenced-in area at night. The fence protects them from nighttime predators.

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Montana wildlife commissioners have voted to close the state's gray wolf hunting season early. This is in response to the adverse publicity caused by hunters killing several collared research wolves from nearby Yellowstone National Park that had strayed into the area north of the park.

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Western Scrub Jays have been recorded as acting strangely in response to a death of one of their flock. They may gather around the body and give loud distress or warning calls. Scientists theorize that these "funerals" are the jays reacting to a perceived threat and their calls are what they would give in response to a predator.

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A list of the ten most recent extinctions in Canada has been released. These exterminations have happened when the critter died out within the borders of the country or else their population was extirpated by human activity. Several of the species still exist south of the border in the United States and one - the black-footed ferret - has recently been found to have a small population alive and well in Saskatchewan.

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Seven states - New York, Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Vermont, Massachusetts and Rhode Island - are suing the EPA for its failure to control the greenhouse gases produced by the fracking process of extracting oil and natural gas from the earth.

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Many of the natural areas devastated by Superstorm Sandy will be very slow to recover from the damage. One of the worst hit was Gateway Recreation Area on Long Island. I can certainly empathize. I remember well how sick I was when we first visited Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge just a couple of months after Hurricane Ike hit. It frankly reduced me to tears. I wondered if it would ever recover. But now, four years later, one would hardly notice the damage unless you know what was there before. It has come back better than ever. Nature's powers of regeneration are remarkable.

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The Farm Bill that is currently working its way through Congress changes conservation regulations in such a way that may well doom some prairie birds. It will essentially destroy the "potholes" that are so much a part of that environment and on which resident birds as well as waterfowl migrants depend.

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The illegal killing of raptors continues to be a major problem in the UK. The problem received national attention recently when a well-known Hen Harrier that was part of a research project was killed.

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Florida is holding a python-hunting competition with cash prizes to winners as another way of trying to slow down and eventually stop the reproduction of the big snakes in the state. The invasive exotic snakes are known to be a serious threat to birds as well as other native wildlife.

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In another invasive species story, feral cats have been removed from remote Ascension Island, with the result that Frigatebirds have once again returned to nest there.

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Around the backyard:

I wrote a post just yesterday about the three warblers that visit my yard in winter. After I wrote it, I was sitting in my backyard yesterday afternoon watching the two Rufous Hummingbirds joust over the feeder by my little fish pond when suddenly I became aware that the redbud tree in front of me was filling up with little birds. Warblers! Specifically, they were Yellow-rumped Warblers. At least as far as I could tell that's all they were. Of course, I didn't have binoculars or my camera with me at the time and I didn't dare move for fear of scaring them away. But wave after wave of the little birds passed in front of my eyes. I tried to count. I know there were at least thirty and I would estimate up to fifty of the warblers. I also saw at least five Ruby-crowned Kinglets. It was truly an amazing sight. If only I'd had a video camera to record it.